This paper presents a comparative study of position sensorless control schemes based on back-electromotive force (back-EMF) estimation in permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM). The characteristics of the estimated back-EMF signals are analyzed using various mathematical models of a PMSM. The transfer functions of the estimators, based on the extended EMF model in the rotor reference frame, are derived to show their similarity. They are then used for the analysis of the effects of both the motor parameter variations and the voltage errors due to inverter nonlinearity on the accuracy of the back-EMF estimation. The differences between a phase-locked-loop (PLL) type estimator and a Luenberger observer type estimator, generally used for extracting rotor speed and position information from estimated back-EMF signals, are also examined. An experimental study with a 250-W interior-permanent-magnet machine has been performed to validate the analyses.